On Food and Cooking

whimsical shapes, hidden pockets of hissing
gas, and burningly excessive doses of acidity
or spice.
In the kitchen, sugar is a versatile
ingredient. Because sweetness is one of a
small handful of basic taste sensations, cooks
add sugar to dishes of all kinds to fill out and
balance their flavor. Sugar interferes usefully
with the coagulation of proteins, and so
tenderizes the gluten network of baked goods
and the albumen network of custards and
creams. If we heat sugar enough to break its
molecules apart, it generates both appealing
colors and an increasing complexity of flavor:
no longer just sweetness, but acidity,
bitterness, and a full, rich aroma. And sugar is
a sculptural material. Provide it with some
moisture and high heat, and we can coax from
it a broad range of shapeable consistencies,
creamy and chewy and brittle and rock hard.
The story of sugar is not all sweetness and
light. Its appeal was a destructive force in the